


Obsession in Malfoy Manor

by AutumnLily



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Gen, Love Triangles, Multi, Murder Mystery, Wedding Rehearsal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-03
Updated: 2017-02-03
Packaged: 2018-09-21 16:26:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9557135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AutumnLily/pseuds/AutumnLily
Summary: The rehearsal wedding of Draco and Astoria is not going to plan... uninvited guests, missing legal documents, murder... someone is attempting to sabotage their union, and with everyone around them harboring their own motive, how will Draco unravel the mystery in time to fulfil his duty as a Malfoy?Triggers:Angsty with happy endingMild violenceMild sexual descriptions





	

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [Death_by_Quill](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Death_by_Quill) collection. 



> **Prompt:**
> 
> Round One Only  
> Theme: Obsession
> 
> I had fun writing, this. 
> 
> Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoy.

Astoria descended the grand staircase of Malfoy Manor, greeted at the last step by her fiancé for their wedding rehearsal. Draco tipped his head down and offered her a half bow before offering his hand and leading her across the silver and black-speckled marble floor towards the ballroom. They walked in together; joint hands held high to show the union their wedding would offer to both their families and to the sacred twenty-eight. Astoria inclined her head at everyone she passed, her high cheekbones glowing, mulberry lips shining, and eyebrows arched with fine points. She liked Draco well enough. However, this Pureblood wedding was a ritual; a business arrangement between their parents. Her heart trembled as she passed Theo Nott, her true love, the boy her father had deemed too lowly for her hand. Theo shot daggers at Draco as their eyes met, an obsessive glint shadowing Theo’s handsome features. Draco turned from his friend, knowing it was his fault that Theo’s heart had splintered.

Draco stopped short of the head of the aisle and bent down to rest on his left knee, his hand holding Astoria’s guiding her past him, up to the shimmering silver semi-circle alone, before him. Draco knew their parents were pleased with their pending nuptials as it sealed a pureblood succession for both bloodlines and offered both families an extensive monetary advantage in the business world. Draco let go of her hand as she stepped into the semi-circle and waited until she had walked the perimeter of it alone. Draco kept his head bowed. He would continue to emulate the perfect partner, he would continue proving his worth, and he would sire pureblood children. He understood and accepted his duty as a Malfoy.

Astoria was now at the entrance of the semi-circle. Draco silently counted to three, took a deep breath in, and rose, to join her. He stepped into the semi-circle, and the shimmers became silver flames, engulfing them, rising higher and higher until they had no view of the room, the guests, the ceiling – only one another. 

Astoria turned to Draco and extended her right hand. Draco mimicked her movements, and they held the wrist of the other in front of their chests, Astoria’s breasts rising and falling gently with her anticipatory breath, Draco holding his and standing in perfect stillness. The flames flickered down, and the shimmering semi-circle rose around them, closing, creating a bond around the couple. The circle rose above their heads and then shrank, floated down and bent in itself created an infinity symbol above their wrists. 

“And this is when the ceremony will begin, Draco.” Narcissa walked to the edge of the aisle, ancient hand-fasting magic prohibiting anyone but the soon-to-be couple to step beyond the invisible perimeter. “You have both been briefed on the wording, what is expected, and how to proceed from ceremony to reception once the knot has been tied.”

She smiled indulgently at her son, noting that his eyes were avoiding his fiancé. Narcissa felt worried for her son. She had attempted everything in her legal power to annul this betrothal when Lucius had died. However, Astoria’s parents were adamant the wedding was to go ahead. “Astoria, it is time for you to head back to your wing, your sister and your friend will be waiting to celebrate with you. Draco, you, of course, have paperwork to attend to.” She turned and extended her elbow for Draco to hold, and was surprised when Draco and Astoria walked by her, together, hands still linked. Narcissa walked behind them, proudly noting how her son held his head high even when feeling so low.

When they reached the staircase, Astoria ascended without a backwards glance, while Draco and Narcissa made their way to the doorway at the opposite end and pushed the high, double mahogany doors open to enter the back of Lucius’s study. Narcissa walked stiffly to her husband’s old desk and sighed at the image of his handsome face in the frame behind his throne. She was sad he would not be here to see her son married. Lucius would have been proud. She rifled through the parchment searching for the pre-hand fasting contract their families had agreed to sign. It was a very basic pureblood contract; no separation or extra-marital relationships until three pure-blooded children had been sired or it was proven that no children could be had. If a separation were to occur the one seeking the divorce had to pay out a sum of one thousand galleons for every year of marriage to the other. Any joint business endeavours or purchased properties were to be divided equally and put in a trust for the children, or divided equally if there were no children so that neither profited off the separation of the blood-lines. The marriage could not occur until both Draco and Astoria had signed, and Narcissa was, unfortunately, as the mother of the groom, the one who had to run the paperwork to his soon-to-be bride.

“Draco, where is that dreaded document?” Narcissa continued rifling, becoming increasingly frustrated. 

“Have you searched the drawers, mother?” Draco asked, distracted, from the dark green leather couch onto which he had slid.

“No, Draco, I have not, they were atop the pile of Honeyduke papers we placed here after purchasing their newest store… I saw them only an hour ago…” 

Draco watched in amusement as his mother continued fussing, eventually moving to the desk to assist her. Draco looked through the drawers, then went through each pile his mother had already been through, before bending forwards for a peek underneath in case the parchment had fallen. 

“Perhaps Daphne came for the papers?” Narcissa inquired.

“No, the Greengrass’s are women of tradition, mother, you know as well as I do they are currently waiting for you to bring them the contracts.” Draco was now becoming nervous. The wedding would not be held until the ‘T's were crossed, and the ‘I’s all dotted. He may not be in love with Astoria, but he had a duty to fulfil and had been in anticipation of the wedding for three years. He would not allow something as simple as a missing document to deprive him, or Astoria, of fulfilling their family duty.

“Send for Phineas Nott, mother, have him draw up another contract. It is a waste of time, searching, they were here, they are gone, we need those documents. Do it quickly.” Draco slammed down the pile he was holding and threw himself petulantly back on the green couch. A noise came from the corner of the room, and the curtains rustled in the breeze of an open window. Narcissa stood behind Draco and stroked her nails through his hair, glad he was in a mood so that she, as her right as his mother, could console him one last time before handing over her precious son to the Greengrass child. She smiled to herself before pointing her wand at the fireplace. Phineas Nott’s office appeared. 

“Phineas?” Narcissa called. “We require a duplicate copy of the Malfoy-Greengrass contract you drafted for us, at once.” She resumed stroking her sons’ head, Draco leaning back into her hands, breathing deeply to calm his fraying nerves. 

“Greengrass-Malfoy, mother.” Draco corrected in a quiet voice, his eyes closed. “Alphabetically, Astoria comes first.” Narcissa twitched and accidentally pressed a nail into Draco’s scalp.

“Watch it, mother!” Draco jerked away from her, a droplet of blood oozing down his forehead. “Leave me be for now.” He commanded. Narcissa sighed. 

“I have to stay, and await Phineas.” She smiled to herself as she turned from her son, pleased to have this ready excuse to stay with him awhile longer. She knew Draco would not indulge the pre-hand fasting traditions until the paperwork was signed as he would not do anything to jeopardise his upcoming nuptials. Narcissa scowled at the image in her mind of Draco and Astoria kissing to seal the bonding magic. She floated to the fireplace. She did not mind that the paperwork was lost. She wouldn’t mind if Astoria were lost and unable to be found before the wedding. It simply offered her more time with her son. 

“Phineas” Narcissa put on a good show of pretending to care about the wedding. When she was alone and honest with herself, she would have preferred Draco marry a half-blood, or a mudblood, if that was what would make him happy. Astoria, however, was to be his wife, and Narcissa felt, with every day that went by, that her son was dying a bit more inside. Narcissa’s vitriolic thoughts spewed forth as she called for the man who had the power to issue the paperwork once more, sending her son further into the arms of the homewrecker known as Astoria. 

“Phineas!” Draco bellowed from the couch. No response.

“Merlin forbids…” muttered Narcissa, pointing her wand at the grate, a thick green cushion appeared which she kneeled on, moving her head through the flames to peer into Phineas’ office. 

She withdrew immediately, concealing her smile and preparing her face in a macabre expression.

“Phineas has been murdered.” She whispered and then feigned sobs, secretly elated.

Draco appeared behind her.

“Mother? No!” Draco kneeled and peered through, catching sight of the old wrinkled man face down on his desk, a letter opener through his temple. 

Draco pushed back and re-entered his father’s study. He wrapped his mother in his arms and held her. “What will I do, mother? I must marry Astoria!” Narcissa grunted, covering it with a sniffle.

“We must summon Astoria,” Narcissa exclaimed. She stood, sweeping her hands down her full skirt before stalking to the door. She turned. “Draco, if, for whatever reason, this wedding doesn’t move forwards, know that mother will always love you.”

“Obviously, mother. But a man cannot sire children with his mother, can he?” Narcissa flushed in anger and left the study.

Draco began pacing in front of the fireplace. The paperwork had been there. Now, the only man to reproduce that paperwork was dead.

Someone apparently wanted this wedding cancelled. 

Malfoy haltered. There was his answer. The union of the Greengrass and Malfoy clans would solidify the largest family holding within Gringotts of their generation. The only family to come close to this was the Blaise-Parkinsons clan.

“Blaise!” Draco was furious. He stepped back to the grate and pointed his wand into the flame. A moment later Blaise stepped onto the plush carpet, shaking the dust off his pinstriped robe. 

“Malfoy. You summoned me. This couldn’t have waited until after your wedding?”

“Do not mock me, Blaise! I know what you have done!” 

“I admit it, Malfoy.” Blaise jeered. “And there is nothing to be done.” He laughed.

Draco pushed Blaise back up against the stones surrounding the fireplace, the flames licking his robes causing Blaise pain, Draco’s wand at his throat. Blaise put his hands up in surrender. 

“Merlin, Malfoy, it was only a promotion! We both know I have more skill and experience. So what, I edited your proposal to make my own more impressive. I promise…” he looked into Malfoy’s cold eyes, and then at the tip of the wand aimed at his throat. “I promise, once it is made public, I will elevate you as well. We can handle the department together, if it means this much to you, Malfoy.” 

Draco stopped. “Promotion? You got the promotion?”

“Is that not why you summoned me?” Draco stepped back as Blaise straightened his robes.

“No… someone… someone has been meddling in my personal affairs.”

Blaise laughed again. “Draco, if it is personal, it is not me. I care not for you as a person, only as a colleague.” Blaise scowled at Draco and disappeared into the flames. 

“CURSES!” Draco pointed his wand at the curtain behind his father’s desk, and it burst into flames. A high pitched squeal came from behind the flames and Draco watched in horror, as Hermione Granger stepped out of the fiery shadows. 

“Granger?”

And suddenly it made sense. 

Draco and Hermione had experienced an ill-fated, short-lived passionate and intense affair in the year between graduating Hogwarts and his betrothal to Astoria. They had never told a soul. Both had been training for the defensive department… the adrenaline, the physical exertion, the pheromones, the isolation…images were swirling through his mind; Hermione, pushing him onto the cave floor beside their fire, her face flushed above his as he ripped open her blouse; underneath him in France, as he bit her breasts and forcefully spread her legs, tearing through her panties in a sweaty, heaving mess to enter her; underneath his desk in Moscow, the sun setting through the window casting a fiery glow on her skin and lighting Draco’s world on fire as she screamed in pleasure while he thrust up into her, her legs wrapped around his waist, as his seed poured deep inside.

“Draco…” 

He was no longer angry. He understood. He, too, had thought that what they had shared was love. Until he had remembered that she was a mudblood and no Malfoy could ever love a mudblood. The feelings hadn’t dissipated, he had merely shut them in a box in a corner of his heart and attempted to lose the key by offering himself, his body, his mind, his name, to another, one of pure blood. 

“I just, I had to see you, one last time before you… before you…” Hermione couldn’t finish her sentence. Draco pointed his wand at the doors at each end of the study and then quickly closed the gap between them. 

“I do so well to pretend, Hermione. I give her my attention, my presence, my body… tomorrow I give her my name… but you, only you, will ever truly have my heart.”

Draco allowed a single tear to slide down his cheek as he cupped her wet face and brought her lips to his. She tasted of tears mixed with raspberry – her preferred lip balm flavour. She shivered in his arms.

“I know we can never be, Draco.” She held him fiercely, an embrace which shouted at him ‘do not leave me here in this world alone!’, He had to. For both of them. If they were to make their love public both would be ostracised, they and their families would lose everything.

“I knew it…” hissed a voice from the opposite corner of the room. “I knew your “love” for my sister was too good to be true.” Daphne Greengrass stepped out from behind a large pre-Raphaelite statue. Her wand was raised and pointed, not at Draco, but at Hermione. Draco stepped before Hermione, shielding her with his body.

“Daphne… you?”

“Yes, Draco. I burnt the paperwork. I visited dear Theo’s poor great Uncle Phineas. I am the one preventing this merge. You cannot have my sister, Draco. You do not care for her.”

“I may not love her in the whole manner she deserves, Daphne, but I do care for her, deeply. I will do my best to fulfil her needs, I will offer myself to her daily, if only... if only to repent for the sins of my past.” His eyes flickered to Hermione, and she blushed, deeply, knowing she was the sin of which he spoke. Laying with a mudblood. There was nothing more shameful to a Malfoy.  
“Not. Good. Enough. You cannot claim to be good for Astoria when you still harbour an obsession for the mudblood!” Daphne sent Draco flying with a flick of her wand, Hermione stood, vulnerable, fumbling for her wand as Daphne advanced.  
“Draco, I cannot find Daphne, however, Astoria will be down shortly…” Narcissa stopped mid-sentence as she stepped out of the fireplace. Narcissa pointed her wand at Daphne “Incarcerous!” 

Daphne fell to the floor, writhing. Narcissa stood over her as Hermione helped Draco stand. “Draco, what shall I do with her?”  
Draco moved forwards. “Obliviate.” Daphne’s face went blank. He pointed again. “Obliviate.” He repeated this three more times, to remove the confessions Daphne had heard, the murder in her past, the destruction of the paperwork and anything else she may have done within the past week to work towards her obsession with the prevention of the union. He went to his father's liquor cabinet, took a bottle out and poured fire whisky into her mouth and down her robes. “Mother, take her to the gardens. Take her father for a walk to discuss the reception, and make sure he is the one to find her disoriented and stinking of booze.”  
Narcissa nodded. She looked at Hermione with raised eyebrows. 

Draco stepped in front of Hermione, and Narcissa looked away. She would always choose to protect her son. She pointed her wand at Daphne, and they both disappeared.

“I can recreate the paperwork, Draco,” Hermione whispered. He nodded. Hermione could do anything. No matter their feelings he had to go through with the wedding.

He looked down into her gold-flecked hazel eyes.

As their lips were about to meet Astoria and Theo stepped out of the fireplace, Astoria in tears. 

“Draco, I cannot go through with this! My father’s obsession with our nuptials is all regarding money! I don’t want his money, nor yours! He has disowned me! Theo and I are leaving - do not attempt to find us!” She turned and threw a handful of green powder in and took Theo’s hand. Draco watched in amused disbelief as both his fiancé and his friend disappeared.

Draco and Hermione looked at each other and, without a word, threw in a handful of green powder, vanishing together into the flames.


End file.
